Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness 2008 Conference Programme Session 6

9th Global Conference
Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness

Monday 10th March - Thursday 13th March 2008
Salzburg, Austria

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Conference Programme, Abstracts and Papers

Session 6: Forgiving Beauty?
Chair: Margarita Carretero-Gonzalez

Blessing Those That Curse You: On Lonergan, Forgiveness, and the Problem of Evil
Tim Burns
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, USA

Historically, the problem of evil has two sides. One half of the problem arises out of human freedom. Human beings make evil choices. On the other hand there are what appear to be natural evils. These are evils that are not the result of any human choice; babies are born with cancer and tsunamis kill millions of people. In this paper I examine Canadian philosopher Bernard Lonergan’s approach to both prongs of the problem of evil. I look to determine whether or not his solution, which is based on an account of the conjugate forms of faith, hope, and charity; and culminates in a heuristic where forgiveness plays an essential role in moving beyond the problem of evil, can adequately address both sides of this complicated puzzle. In doing so I will also examine his three fold distinction between basic sins, moral evils, and physical evils as well as the claim that from the viewpoint of the unrestricted act of understanding the non-systematic vanishes.

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She’s Just a Devil Woman… or, There But For the Grace of God….
Michele Huppert
Behavioural Studies, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Australia

Aileen Wuornos and Darine Abu Aisha died as a consequence of committing stereotypically masculine activities – Aileen was arguably America’s most notorious female serial killer and Darine was the first female suicide bomber of the Hamas movement. Whilst serial killing and suicide bombing are both to be condemned, the foray of women into these killing fields begs for analysis. This paper will attempt to explore the similarities of the narratives of these two women, focusing in particular on their experience of strangulation by male dominated and patriarchal societal systems. Feminist theorists, such as Hannah Arendt, have long argued that the patriarchal and paternalistic societal systems of the Western world are complicit in creating the ‘evil woman’ – a woman who acts so beyond the expectation of feminine stereotype as to become monstrous. Islam too is often described as patriarchal in its hierarchical structure, thus the impact of these women’s interaction with masculinity, as represented by social networks and structures will be examined. Drawing on and extending the proposition of the ‘psycho-logic of terrorism’ I will argue that, like the terrorists Jerrold Post focuses on in his thesis, these two women “are driven to commit acts of violence as a consequence of psychological forces” (Post 1998, p.25) and that these acts are rationalised by a compelling ‘psycho-logic’. Exploration and application of the psychoanalytic concepts of splitting and narcissistic injury will further allow for an understanding of the paths Aileen and Darine followed that takes us beyond the limitation of merely describing them as ‘evil’.

God is Good, Evil Exists: An Ecumenical Monotheistic Interpretation
Charlene Burns
Department of Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, USA

The reality of suffering and violence in nature offers a special challenge to the Christian theologian. Astronomers tell us that the universe originated in a violent explosion, and the natural world continues to manifest signs of the instability that marked its origin. Nature is in constant flux, from the drift of continents and movement of fault lines in the earth to the extinction of species. Scientists estimate that 99.9% of all species that ever evolved on earth are now extinct, and only 67% of extant species in the United States today are considered to be secure. The universe as we experience it is “rife with happenstance, contingency, incredible waste, death, pain and horror.” Theologically, the problem traditionally has been handled by attempts to justify the goodness and power of God in spite of the reality.
Theodicy distinguishes between natural and moral evil, playing a semantic game that side steps reality in defense of omnipotence. Conventional images of God as the great cosmic personal agent with absolute power who resides “on the other side of a metaphysical divide” force us to try to explain the inexplicable and seduce us into anthropocentrism: we do not accept that nature is beyond our control so we project our desires for omnipotence onto the god-image, glossing over the reality-violence and suffering are inherent in the evolutionary process. Theologies will fail in grappling with this issue unless they become “honest, and ever-vigilant against the temptation… to excise from [nature]…violence and indifference to suffering” simply because this reality does not suit our theological systems or political goals. Evil is. Violence is-- in nature and in the human. Solutions will not be found by ignoring, glossing over, or explaining this away. The problem for a theologian is how to take up the call for honesty about God and the indifference of the universe to suffering while remaining faithful to Christian claims that God is Creator, Sustainer and Self-Giving Love.
In this paper I explore the possibility that theological difficulties can be ameliorated by way of an ecumenical monotheistic approach. Concepts to be incorporated include ideas from Judaism, Christianity and Islam. From Judaism, themes of the rabbinic and mystical traditions will be of use (e.g. the yester hara, evil inclination, creation from chaos, the crafty but not demonic serpent in the Garden of Eden, the zimzum or contraction of The One and ‘shattering of the vessel’, and the imperative for humanity-tikkum olam-to repair creation). From Christianity, I bring the concept of God as Love Itself, the Incarnation, and Eastern Orthodox theology of divine energies. Islam offers resources like insistence upon divine oneness (which means that creation, since it is ‘other than’ Absolute Goodness, necessarily is flawed) and the function of personifications of evil (which serve as constant reminders of our responsibility to strive for justice). By bringing these concepts into conversation, I believe it is possible to develop a more complete and honest theological description of the reality of evil, the absolute goodness of God, and the moral imperative of stewardship implicit in humanity as the divine “image and likeness”.